# Teensy

21 Hacker News commenters recommended Teensy and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for high processing power in a small, cheap board with plenty of I/O and polished development support. Critics object that it is closed hardware.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong processing power in small size (6 comments): "if I wanted that I would just purchase it rather than the Freensy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46617850)) "Teensy 4 does currently fill a pretty unique niche in terms of processing power though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46617770)) "I use Teensy because it's the screaming-est processor, and I use its computing power." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46015885))
- Respected maker and polished products (5 comments): "Imho it's a great product, and the owner, Paul Stoffregen, a great engineer and person from my experience using their products." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46627613)) "We all really should be supporting the Teensy guy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45987143)) "Developers value Teensy's polish & consistency" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46633091))
- Saves designing your own board (2 comments): "I'd heavily recommend checking out the teensy. It removes the need for a raspi or computer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47692139)) "It's faster than having to route your MCU, USB, debugger, etc. manually" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46020770))
- Reliable with minimal software overhead (2 comments): "worked just fine for my projects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45988927)) "Less OS means less to go wrong." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46160522))

## What people warn about

- Closed, single-source hardware and software (5 comments): "when a closed product or exclusive channel is used as leverage, the correct response is to remove the leverage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46616775)) "closed as I have no interest in promoting or teaching closed hardware and software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46629755)) "we don't want to trade one closed-single-source component for another." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46617350))
- Called dated and old-fashioned (2 comments): "The Teensy is so 2020 anyways." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46633264)) "Leave this old shit behind." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527864))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [ESP32](https://hackerapproved.com/p/esp32.md): 190 recommend
- [Arduino boards](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arduino.md): 81 recommend
- [Raspberry Pi Pico](https://hackerapproved.com/p/raspberry-pi-pico.md): 72 recommend
- [Raspberry Pi RP2040](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rp2040.md): 29 recommend
- [ESP32-S3](https://hackerapproved.com/p/esp32-s3.md): 26 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=PJRC+Teensy+4.0+microcontroller+board&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Teensy", https://hackerapproved.com/p/teensy/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).